Divine Rise of the Runelords

Game Master nate lange

Sorry, she is trying to open the door.

Thank you, although, it would still help to know who's next after you and how far back they are? Also, I try to streamline superfluous doors when I can, but if we had an established pattern for door opening we could sometimes move through a couple doors at once in a bigger post instead of getting caught at little worthless doors.

I am ok with being anywhere but the front in the marching order. I think we should trail Tera between 15 and 20'. (imho)

Trailing maybe 15 to 20' back sounds good. Maybe the marching order should be something like Tera, Kaede, Zache, Marcus, Kaelaah, Sal? Or maybe the above except swap Zache and Marcus. Tera's the advance scout so she'll be leading most of the time and Kaede needs to be up front since that's usually where most of the action happens. Zache and Marcus both do some stuff that relies on them being close and other stuff not so much, so being somewhere in the middle seems like it'd work the best for them. Kaelaah fights at range and Sal can fight at range if she has to.

For dealing with doors and the like, we should probably be utilizing Take 10/Take 20 when it's feasible (not in a hurry, no immediate dangers).

So, I was looking back over everyone’s backgrounds to remind myself about pre-existing knowledge/relationships with Nualia (in preparation for potential upcoming RP)... I have a few questions but I figured I’d also post what I did know (both to remind anyone who might not remember what they wrote 2 years ago, and so everyone knows/remembers who else may have been around).

Salomae- you were the first of the marked to arrive and Sandpoint and lived at the smaller church for 4 years before it burned down. You definitely knew Nualia fairly well, and really felt her death.

Kaelaah- you arrived a few months before the fire... you would have at least met Nualia, though not known her well. You couldn’t help but be effected by the mourning, but the suspicious or even accusing glances you sometimes felt over the fire affected you even more... and now it might not have been an accidental fire at all but set by one of the ‘victims’...

Zache- your background has you arriving around the time of the fire but I can’t tell if it was shortly before or shortly after? It seems from the timeline like it would have been shortly after (right around when Tera arrived), in which case you would have the same experience as her... if it was shortly before you would known Nualia at least a little bit. Please let me know which you prefer?

Tera- you arrived very soon after the old cathedral burned down and didn’t know Nualia personally, though you saw firsthand the grief over her and her adopted father’s deaths.

Kaede- you were the last of the marked to arrive in Sandpoint (which was a strange experience because they seemed to sort of expect your arrival), but the fire was 4.5 years before you got there and was rarely spoken of by then. Most of what you know of Nualia you’ve learned since Tsuto was captured.

Marcus- you know literally nothing about Sandpoint or the cathedral, much less the fire years ago or Nualia’s former life. All you know about the demon-armed woman is that since your capture she would periodically hurt you in different ways to see what kind of responses she could get from you and your birthmark.

Yep, that sounds about right. That's also why I asked if Sal could see who Tera's attacker was - didn't want to jump the gun on a screaming match civilized dialogue having words if she couldn't see who it is yet :)

I tried to edit that post but the site crashed...

@Sal- please let me know what kind of relationship you want to have had with her. You’re probably like 4-5 years apart in age so you could just be acquaintances, or there could have been almost a sisterish dynamic (if you kind of idolized her in some way and she liked you but sort of saw you as a little young/clingy/annoying), or you could have bonded over being ‘special’ and the expectations and everything else that comes with that? Whatever the case, she had a strong private streak and would have kept you at arm’s length at least some of the time.

Sounds about right. There's a reason that Kaede didn't demand surrender immediately, like she has from almost every other combat thaat she's been in.

Pretty much. I pictured the fire happening only a day or two before she arrived.

Busy busy busy... stupid work, leaving me drained.

Yeah, Zache arrived shortly after, most likely once rebuilding had begun. I'll whip into gameplay now!

I forgot to post the Valentines Day blessing update. Marcus, Tera, and Sal all posted on Valentines Day and gain the favor of the Empyreal Lord Arshea!

Marcus and Tera both gain The Blessing of Arshea!

Sal already has the (unused) Blessing so she gains the Improved Blessing of Arshea. This functions as the Blessing of Arshea but she gains a +2 bonus to the blessing's DC.

I'm editing the campaign tab to reflect this but please add them to your character sheets (somewhere where you'll remember that you have them).

Sal already has the (unused) Blessing

Story of my life...

(Seriously though, thanks! Maybe I'll actually remember to use it before Valentine's Day 2019!)

lol- i tend to do that in video games a lot. to date it has paid off exactly one time.

On an unrelated note: your max hero points should be 3 and (aside from Marcus) those of you who haven't spent any points should be at 3. and, I know some of you have trouble spending resources, but when you level everyone gains a hero point... which will be lost to the void if you're already at the maximum.

So... tomorrow’s my birthday (kind of a notable one) and my wife’s cousin just showed up at my house and my wife was like “surprise, she’s here to watch the kids; go back for 2days.”

I have no idea where I’m going or what the wi-fi will be like... if I go silent you’ll know why.

Happy early birthday. Hope you have fun!

Yes, Happy Birthday and enjoy the break!

Jacuzzi suite at a nice hotel not super far from where we live (Russell’s, joe). Wi-fi seems pretty good but posting will likely be limited to while my wife is sleeping and whatnot. If I’m going too slow I’m any of our other games feel free to bot me.

Enjoy your weekend of relaxation, we all need it from time to time.

Posting here so as not to clog gameplay - thanks for the reminder, GM. It's 1:30 a.m. now, but I'll probably post again in the morning and take that standard action.

I hope that the emotional outburst isn't too out of place. Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears are monsters, not people to her, so Nualia's the first person she's killed and between that and the frankly terrifying way her emotions shut off when she used her judgement was more than enough to overwhelm her.

TL;DR: Tera really needs a hug right now.

Makes sense to me, Tera. Currently at work but post hopefully incoming soon...

On a lighter note, lol @ the language spoiler and poor Orik :)

Yup. Poor Orik. He's gonna have at least one emotional young woman to deal with.

So... this is interesting - makes running Rise of the Runelords - and other Varisia campaigns, a load more interesting?

With the Campaign Setting dropping to bi-monthly and presumably an inevitable winding up of content as Pathfinder v2.0 approaches, I've resubscribed to the line (Nidal having it's own book is another reason... as is resubscribing to the AP line for War of the Crown - Return of the Runelords thereafter).

That does look interesting...

Cool beans!

Oh boy. That looks like it could make running some of the Varisian APs a lot of fun. I wonder if it considers Jade Regent already having happened?

I read some of the thread and it says that the books is set between RotRL and Jade Regent but has some notes on what happens to the Rusty Dragon and Kaijitsu Manor after Ameiko leaves.

On a different note: its been almost 24 hours since our last post... are people done RPing? Is anyone doing anything before bed- using any last resources, reading the diary, make any specific preparations?

Just waiting to see if Sal or Kaede has anything more.

Also waiting on Orik's answer to her question.

Sorry, Orik (and I) took your questions to be rhetorical...

He doesn’t know any of this but pumpkin head was the tribal shaman (who resented Nualia and stayed outside the fort in protest of her presence), the hunting party was those goblin’s riding wolves that you killed the very first day on your way from the road up to the coast.

Ah, I got ya.

So...this is probably a bit out of the blue, but conversation in a different game led me to write the following and I thought it deserved being posted here, too.

It's kind of a sappy, 'I love you guyyyyys' thing except without the alcohol? :)

Apologies to some of you who'll see this across multiple games!

I've always been impressed by the personal touch in your gameplay, Lady, and I think it would be nice to connect with people I game with. I'm on Facebook also. (And foolish or not, this is my real name) look me up sometime.

For someone who (also) uses their real name for their online presence, I’m surprisingly hesitant about connecting with people outside of the forums but, like Sal, my inbox is always open if any of you need to vent or anything.

Actually, for Facebook you'll be looking for Joseph D Ludwick

Just echoing what others have said here... my inbox is always open for folks who want to PM and, if you ever see me seemingly ignoring posts in the Discussion Thread then its just 'cause I'm an absent-minded, juggling loads of balls at work then returning home to a 6 yo / 9 yo pair of boys, fellow... I saw Salomae's / Ladile's Walking Dead game suddenly stop and it is kind of sad - and, I suppose, always a risk of running long games that we get emotionally invested in. I consider everyone here a friend - goodness knows I've played on these boards with you folks for a good few years... I'm not on Facebook, Google Hangouts or the like - but, e-mail is a thing :)

I'm not planning on going AWOL anytime soon - in addition to this game, four of my five GM games are long campaigns (Shattered Star soon to finish book two of six, Legendary Planet halfway through the second book proper, the Emerald Spire at the thirteenth level of sixteen... and the Blight only just started along its long road) - but I'm going to PM players in my games my e-mail address - just as an insurance against the 'has my GM dropped off the face of the world?' syndrome - if I do ever go long term in absentia, you'll have another way of reaching out...

Cool beans Joe & Zed; I'll be sure to hit you both up via those respective outlets. And also, for what it's worth, the vote of confidence/trust is noted and appreciated since I know it's not always easy to open up to people you've never actually met in person.

It's a lot easier to open up about some things when you're an open book anyway. :P

I started using my real name for my online presence around the time I started playing Pathfinder. While you can find me on Facebook, I do not recommend trying to contact me there. I'm notorious about never logging on there.

I'll post my email here and in my profile so you guys can get in touch with me off the site, though my PM box here is always open as well. I do check my email daily, so I'm not likely to miss it.

I do get anxious when I'm the last person to post and it was something that was meant to be replied to and two days later there are no new posts. I also tend to worry that my characters are A) too much alike and B) just annoying, so trust me when I say that I know how it feels when you don't hear from anyone in response to something that you wanted them to respond to. Anxiety is just something that I've always had trouble with, and it doesn't help that I seem to legitimize it by screwing up in spectacular fashions from time to time.

Oh, and my email is salsa.the.geek@gmail.com

Sorry for the sudden hard turn, but...

***Important GM Post***
As I made allusion to earlier we are quickly approaching the end of book one. Congrats! This brings up several things:

1) Once you return to Sandpoint and have a chance to really rest and recuperate everyone will reach 4th level. Please don't update your profiles yet, but go ahead and start thinking about any choices you may have to make when we level (new spells, where your stat point will go, etc).

2) There's an opportunity for some downtime between books (maybe right after returning to Thistletop if you plan to come back to consecrate the place), so please think about what, if anything, you might like to do... is there an NPC you'd like to talk to some? A place in or near town you'd like to check out? A new skill (or multiclass) that you'd like to learn? I'd love to hear about those things as soon as possible so I can do a little planning before they come up.

3) This is probably the best place in the whole AP for people to exit... I have no intention of asking anyone to leave, but I know some of you have a lot on your plates IRL, and some players seem like possibly they're not enjoying their character as much any more or maybe their interest level in this particular game has dropped some... if you want to stay, I'd love to have you (and I'd love to hear from you about what you think might help you get back into really enjoying the game), but if anyone would like to leave I can work the story so that you're calling to Sandpoint was specifically to stop Naulia and now you're being called elsewhere, and you can bow out with no guilt and no hurt feelings. Like I said, this isn't directed at anyone in particular, and I'm not asking anyone to bow out, but if anyone would like the opportunity to step away without feeling like they're letting the group down or anything, please let me know.

Ran out of time last night and work beckons today but I'll catch up with the variety of games I share with you folks later tonight - and hopefully address the good GM's questions above, too.

Just realized that I'm setting up a Love Triangle here.

(Also, I'd give his channel a watch. The videos are pretty dang funny.)

As far as the upcoming downtime is concerned. I would love to go see Sal's family. I figured it could just be Sal and Tera or it could be all three of the girls or all of us. Not sure who else would want to go, but hey, it might be fun if all of us went! :)

I also want to have another run in with Shayliss, maybe this time it's just Tera and her? I think it'd be fun especially if she manages to tick Tera off. Not really a priority, though.

I also wonder if maybe Tera's parents and siblings could show up? Again, not a priority. I'm sure that we'll be seeing them soon enough anyway.

I do have another character that I would love to play, but I'm not willing to write Tera out just to play her. Besides, I'm not sure if too-serious Torite smith would fit with what Nate has in mind. I've just got her in the back of mind in case Tera buys the farm.

Nobody buys the farm on my watch.

Marcus would like to see Sandpoint, but wont be willing to leave the sides of his new friends in a city setting.

Coming to terms with wanting to be on his own, but knowing that's impossible.

Oh don't worry. I know at least two people that'd be willing to show you around. Tera and Zache would be more than happy to show Marcus around. :)

Realized I forgot to reply to Tera's suggestions! Hmm...I could do a Sal family interlude, though it might be easier on the GM to have them decide to make an impromptu visit to Sandpoint after word spreads of all the stuff that's happened in the town lately :)

Also, I've been giving it some thought and I think that I'd like for Sal to eventually move into the Evangelist prestige class. The seed - heh - for that is in my most recent Gameplay post, as it references Erastil's deific obedience. It seems like it'd be more fitting for her than the Sentinel prestige class (the flavor of which, for Erastil, kinda locks her into being more of an archer than I'd envisioned her being). Tera's the archer, Sal's more of a switch-hitter.

I know I've mentioned this before but just to reiterate... I've done some game design stuff in the past and I'm not afraid to do more now. If anyone has an idea for a prestige class they'd like to pursue (that doesn't exist), even if it's vague, shoot me a PM and we can talk about options. It's been a while since I looked at the sentinel class (or Erastil's boons) but I'm pretty sure that we could come up with an Erastil specific prestige class for you, Sal, if you're interested.

Also, I'm enjoying the RP and now I'll need to find that balance of not rushing anyone but still moving things along before they drag... my plan right now is to give you all most of the weekend to RP and then after work on Sunday (about 60 hours from now) I'll try to move things into tomorrow. If you haven't already done so, you can update your banners- you're all still 3rd level for now, but you're at full health and have all your spells and class abilities back.

I'm all for that, too. Either way I think it'd be fun and give Tera and Sal a chance to bond a little more.

As far as prestige classes go. I'm still planning on Mystic Theurge, but I remember you saying something about modifying it so Tera would still get some of the Inquisitor goodies since it's only 6-level casting class instead of a full casting class. and wouldn't be as good for the normal mystic theurge prestige class.

Moving the game along Sunday will work for me; I'll actually *be* at work that day but shouldn't have too much trouble finding time to post since Sundays are typically on the quiet side. If not, there's always that evening after work or Monday, which I'll have off.

And I might take you up on that custom prestige class thing, too! Game design and homebrew isn't really my forte but I'll do my best to give proper input to help make the process easier.

Tera- I wasn't picturing anything major for your tweaks... I was thinking something probably like your MT levels stack with Inquisitor levels for your domain/inquisition, and the piercing judgment?

Sal- I'm pretty good at it. I'm busy right now but if you want to PM me some of the things you like I can start looking at a rough draft. what about the sentinel and evangelist do you particularly like or dislike? which boons from deific obedience are you into? what other kinds of abilities do you find appealing? etc.

I'm hoping to be able to stick around for a good while yet, especially since my PBPs are my only current Pathfinder fix. (GURPS and Exalted just don't scratch the same itch, you know?) My spurts of low-activity have nothing to do with a lack of enjoyment; just a lot of stuff going on in life (I've been at this job for six weeks, and I haven't been paid yet, so I'm *losing* money on it!)

I haven't even thought about where I'd like to take Zache, though. I don't even know whether to focus more on offensive casting, or on two-weapon fighting. I'm honestly just awful at planning out my characters; I tend to just sort of... go along with everything ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3,000 gameplay posts!

Thank you all for the time and energy you've put into this game, and for bearing with me when I needed to pause it for a while. I may be biased but this is definitely one of my favorite games.

Also, a quick reminder as we draw near to the next morning- you're all still 3rd level, but you're back to full health and have all your daily resources back.

@Zache- you don't need to plan ahead, in fact for a Desnan bard its probably more fitting if you don't, lol. If you want to look ahead, there is a prestige class for Desnan bards that might interest you (I would let you qualify with your divine fighting technique instead of weapon finesse)